Biography

Ashley Muchow is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Justice at the University of Illinois Chicago and Co-Director of the Applied Policy Research Lab at UIC’s College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs.

Her research examines how policing both responds to and reproduces social inequality in the United States. Using predominantly quasi-experimental methods, her work follows two interrelated lines of inquiry:

1. Policing and immigration enforcement. Her research in this area examines the causes and consequences of the growing entanglement between policing and immigration enforcement. Her work has shown that immigration enforcement suppresses crime reporting in minority communities but that community policing may help mitigate these effects. She has also demonstrated how media rhetoric shapes local cooperation with immigration enforcement and found that local participation in immigrant detention increases Latino arrest rates, further deepening disparities in police contact.

2. Structural influences on policing in marginalized communities. This line of inquiry examines how broader societal forces—such as high-profile police violence, public service cuts, and policing strategies—shape law enforcement behavior. Her research shows how police practices shifted after the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video in Chicago, how mental health clinic closures in Chicago affected police contact in marginalized communities, and the impact of community policing on public safety in minority neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

Her work has been published in leading journals across criminology, urban studies, and migration research, including Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Criminology & Public Policy, the Journal of Urban Economics, and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.